A journey through the Decorated Apparel Industry

New Era begins anew

Several years ago SanMar helped to create an apparel line for OGIO. OGIO was an innovative bag company that we were exclusively carrying. My guess is that they knew their brand was strong and wanted to carry that momentum over to an apparel line. We combined design efforts and created an extrodinary collection. A few years later we had another baby together, OGIO Endurance, and yet again, it was a resounding success.

Now we are on the tail end of 2017(a year I think we all want to move forward from) and another new member of the SanMar family is about to be born: New Era apparel. Similar in origin, we are taking the country’s largest and oldest headwear manufacturer and builing an apparel collection that speaks to their roots and branches. Having just launched this week, this is being treated as somewhat of a “soft launch” as the product is ramping up stock and really being featured for the start of 2018.

Now, in Feb I will be celebrating my 11th year as an employee of SanMar(with a few years prior as a customer). I can honestly say that this collection is the best work our design team has ever produced. The attention to detail is not only felt with the fabric and design, but also in covering the many areas that New Era has become a household name.

Over the 100+ years of being a brand, New Era has grown from its origins deeply rooted in MLB, to now having the NFL and many other major sports brand contracts. Beyond their sports heritage, they skyrocketed as a lifestyle/fashion brand over the last 20 years. It is nearly impossible not to witness their legendary logo on the size of caps all over the country. They have become so synonymous with Style, that it is a sign of having “made it” to rock your very own co-branded New Era caps.

The collection itself is centered around a core offering of fabrics: Heritage Blended 60/40, Tri-blends, Poly performance and even some Terry Fleece. There are various subset collections that resound with both sport and lifestyle fashion. I suppose when I call this the G.O.A.T.(Greatest of all time) I am referring to the perfect balance of our unique industry needs alongside modern trend desires. This product will not only look good but be well prepared to decorate and sell to the masses. A true Grand Slam.